GMFRS calls on Government to do more in advance of proposed reforms

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) have responded to the Government’s ‘Building a safer future: proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory system’ consultation and called for action to be taken in the short term to protect residents from the broken regulatory system.

GMFRS contributed to the new building safety regime proposal through the submission of a comprehensive document which includes 84 recommendations to Government. Those recommendations cover how a new regulatory regime could work, but also call on the Government to introduce regulations under existing legislation to close gaps in the Building Control system and to ensure residents in high rise buildings have access to information.

Although the GMFRS submission supports the view that the current system for regulation is not fit for purpose, it makes clear that the proposals do not go far enough and that buildings should be risk rated in relation to their use and not simply their height.

Having inspected all high rise buildings in Greater Manchester, supporting the High Rise Task Force set up by the Mayor and regularly meeting with affected residents GMFRS has called on the Government to act swiftly to adopt an interim approach which would bring immediate improvements.  

GMFRS Assistant Chief Fire Officer and Director of Protection, Tony Hunter said: “At GMFRS we believe we are uniquely placed to contribute our experience and understanding to this consultation. Since the Grenfell Tower fire, we have inspected all of the high-rise residential buildings in Greater Manchester and we continue to work intensively with housing providers, managing agents and residents to monitor buildings and ensure the relevant safety improvements are made.

“Teams from across GMFRS worked hard to evaluate the proposal in detail, using their experiences to consider existing challenges faced and ensure a full understanding of the detail, implications and potential ramifications of the proposal. Their hard work allowed us to submit a detailed response which evaluates the Government proposal and suggests an alternative interim approach.

"We will continue to work with housing providers and managing agents and support residents in high rise buildings, but this would be made easier if the Government acted to improve the legal requirements to document and share safety information with residents”

A more in-depth summary of the response to the consultation submitted by GMFRS can be found here

13/08/2019 13:15 PM